Pennsylvania's budget held hostage on fiscal cliff

One of the things that was disconcerting in the [Independent Fiscal Office] report – and I was told they hedged – was that they were looking at .8 percent revenue growth in the coming year against what might be considered baseline growth. We're talking several hundred million dollars' difference.

Q: You're in the process of drawing up the governor's fiscal 2013-2014 budget proposal, which is due next Feb. 7. How much more difficult does the uncertainty in Washington make your job?

A: It throws up a huge question mark. We literally started our development process — the agencies submitted their requests. And now we're bringing every department in to sit down with the budget office and the senior staff and with the governor.

That process will continue through January in anticipation of a Feb. 7 budget address. Literally, in the middle of this, we will have something from Washington that addresses all this. They're set to go home on Dec. 21. They're probably going home for the holidays. In the middle of all our work, we could leave for Christmas and come back to a very different environment.